Apple denied rights to the term ‘App Store’

Apple’s claim to the term ‘app store’ has been denied by a judge in California who blocked the technology giant’s injunction against Amazon’s use of ‘AppStore’.

The judge ruled that Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark isn’t famous enough to be considered prominent or renowned – despite the news today that some 15bn apps have been downloaded from the Apple App Store in the last three years.

The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence that the term ’app store’ can be owned by Apple as there is ample evidence other firms use the same term generically to sell software applications for mobile devices.

Apple filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to register ‘App Store’ as a trademark.

However, both Amazon and Microsoft use the term ‘app store’ because they consider it a generic term. Apple had demanded that Amazon refrain from using the term for its ‘Amazon Android AppStore’, which launched in March.